The invention generally relates to a supply voltage regulation system,
A typical computer system may include a supply voltage delivery system, such as a voltage regulation system 5 that is depicted in FIG. 1, for purposes of communicating a supply voltage to power consuming circuitry of the computer system. As an example, this power consuming circuitry may be distributed throughout the system on various dies that form the components of the system. More particularly, as depicted in FIG. 1, the voltage regulation system 5 may include a voltage regulator module (VRM) 10 that furnishes a supply voltage (called VDC), a voltage that is communicated to the power consuming circuitry 16 of a particular die 14 via a transmission line 12.
Ideally, the transmission line 12 has zero resistance, inductance and capacitance. However, such characteristics for the transmission line 12 are usually not the case, as the transmission line 12 may be subject to various parasitic elements. For example, there are parasitic impedances such as resistances and inductances that may be introduced to the transmission line 12 through semiconductor package(s), socket/connector(s) and motherboard traces. Furthermore, the transmission line 12 may be subject to various parasitic capacitances due to these same elements, as well as be subject to capacitances that are contributed by coupling capacitors.
Due to these non-ideal effects, it is possible that a voltage drop, or xe2x80x9cdroop,xe2x80x9d may occur across the transmission line 12. In this manner, during times of relatively high power demand from the transmission line 12, a significant difference may exist between the VDC voltage at one end of the transmission line 12 and the voltage that appears at the supply voltage pin of the die 14 at the other end of the transmission line 12. For purposes of compensating for a momentary voltage droop, one or more capacitors 13 may be coupled between the transmission line 12 and ground. These capacitors 13 serve as energy storage devices to stabilize the voltage present at the supply voltage pin of the die 14. However, a difficulty with this voltage droop compensation scheme is that the capacitor(s) 13 may be relatively inefficient and introduce significant power losses.
Thus, there is a continuing need for an arrangement that addresses one or more of the problems that are stated above.